by David Buck
‘Target designation Tango three, all destroyers are to screen our transports and we will drive right through them to our next hyper drive point.’
The sixteen frigates scattered as the human destroyers brought their long range spinal mount guns into action. Mary gave additional orders as several of the frigates were destroyed over the next hour.
‘Disengage from the Tango three targets and stay on course. All ships are to continue screening our transports and ensure their jump drives are online.’
The destroyers kept formation and in another four hours had arrived at their third hyper drive point on the far side of the binary system. Mary then noted the tactical situation had changed as she addressed her crew.
‘The fleet has performed in an exemplary manner in our recent actions and commendations will be awarded should we all survive this war. Now the main armada has just arrived but they are now several hours behind us. We will withdraw very soon and attempt to repeat our ambushes close to home. Communications get me another line to the Jerecab admiral, and let us see if we can give him another hissy fit.’
Mary knew exactly what she wanted to say for she had been studying more of the Barus language data that Gindane had supplied earlier. She ensured that her teeth were showing and that she adopted the most informal tone she could as the view screen came online with a very surprised Admiral Baunrus.
Admiral Baunrus fumed in rage on his bridge and had earlier summarily executed a junior officer who had interrupted him in one of his rants. The officer’s console had been hurriedly deactivated by the other bridge crew present after it had burst into flames. Cold anger tempered with grudging respect for his adversary had flared again as he took in the first damage reports to his armada. Two sections of frigates had been destroyed, and another section had lost six more frigates as they scattered before the humans. The view screen had then come alive with the image of the human admiral as she goaded him in halting Barus.
‘Baunrus, you useless piece of offal, is that the best that you can do with your superior forces. We have destroyed well over thirty of your ships for no losses of our own. I expect you are as useless at pleasuring your mates as you are as an admiral.’
A lieutenant at one of the engineering stations actually snickered and Baunrus quickly drew his laser pistol again to shoot him down. The corpse fell to the deck and Baunrus threw his pistol at the large view screen in rage. The pistol made a dent in the view screen before another crew member quickly kicked it under his console and raised his paws defensively. The admiral did not see this as he started to hiss and angrily rant in Barus language at the human admiral. He had been provoked beyond reason even as the human female glared him in an obvious challenge from the safety of her distant ship.
‘You and your officers will be captured by armada when we take your world from your race. We will leave you alive long enough to see my armada murder every human on your precious Earth. Later you will be personally tortured to death by me over several days, and you will beg for me to kill you….’
Mary understood enough of this message and added a translation for replay to human authorities later when they returned home. She noted that the view screen now displayed the Jerecab admiral spitting curses that she could no longer follow. The broadcast between them dropped at Mary’s signal as she spoke with a curt opinion of her own.
‘We are dealing with a poisonous mad animal and our authorities must be made to see that this is the case. Now I think we have upset him enough and the second objective for today has been reached.’
A series of flashes surrounded the human ships as they entered the safety of the hyper space jump. The distant Jerecab ships broke off their pursuit and began to reform as they went to the aid of the ships damaged in the recent battles.
***
Lord Temeroth relaxed inside his massive acceleration couch and felt quiet satisfaction with the events of the last few days. He had really enjoyed the intense and prolonged mating with the second envoy, and he had then taken bestial delight in severely injuring her after technically complying with the ancient accords. Temeroth knew that he faced a stern rebuke from his leaders, including his father, but he was not concerned as he looked around the bridge of his flag ship.
The battle lord had taken his fleet back towards the central zones of the galaxy in four long hyper drive jumps. He was already toying with the idea of requesting another attaché from Vorinne as many aspects of running his ships were becoming tedious. He was in the process of ordering yet another hyper jump when they detected a pair of Vorinne cruisers approaching, and Temeroth instead ordered his ships to slow down and let the two cruisers approach. After two hours he was wishing he had stayed further out in the galaxy as the Vorinne commander appeared on the view screen and began to speak.
‘My most humble greetings to you Battle Lord Temeroth of the noble and great Zronte. Your older brother, Battle Lord Guneroth, and Vorinne Fleet Captain Mirak’siema have dispatched me to find you and request that you report with all your ships at a location I am now sending to you. The overlords of the Omicron sector have invaded with a sizeable fleet and a response is being organised.’
Temeroth kept silent to keep his fury in check as he noted that the distant location was near the centre of the galaxy. He quickly keyed the name of the Vorinne Fleet captain into a database and realised in quiet shock that the second envoy was the fleet captain’s younger sister. He then checked over the status of his twelve ships as the Vorinne commander briefly spoke again in a curt manner.
‘Battle Lord, note that your older brother also insists that you attend the location with all five squadrons of your cruisers.’
The view screen went blank as the Vorinne commander altered course and his two smaller cruisers flew well away at speed from the twelve larger Zronte ships. Temeroth spluttered in rage and indignation, as he realised that the Vorinne commander had no doubt been instructed by either Guneroth or the fleet captain to bait him if it was safe to do so. There was also the fact that obviously both his father, Grand Lord Dumeroth, and his oldest living brother had now realised what he had been up to for all of these years.
Temeroth resignedly ordered his ships to follow the pair of Vorinne cruisers as he ordered a message probe to be sent towards the hidden location of the rest of his forces. He knew that many years of savage battle could await his forces in the centre of the galaxy, as no doubt the savage and determined Kulvar would be difficult to remove from the Carinae sector. Temeroth also knew that his older brother would not tolerate any disobedience from him, and he remembered with humiliation his brother’s pet name of ‘eggling’ that had been used in the past to upset him.
Temeroth sat quietly for several minutes before he roused himself to check over his ships. He systematically went through the readiness of his ships as he had no doubt that the lives of himself and his crew would later depend upon it. The hand picked drones he had selected as his bridge crew increased their efforts and the ship hummed with activity as preparations were made. The battle lord carefully archived the information he had been working on for the outer part of the galaxy and now called up a map of the central galactic region.
***
Joel Everson nervously looked over the sensor data coming into his console. Once again the two smaller sneak ships had taken point and their advanced sensors had shown little to fear as they entered the Echelon system. A small message probe relayed an encrypted report from Admiral Neilson onto his bridge, and in moments he had the coordinates and the activation codes for the hidden supplies.
‘These are the coordinates for the unmanned supply ships hidden in this system. We will stay here a maximum of three days and we will resupply as much as possible. Unfortunately we cannot take the supply ships with us as they are too slow.’
Joel was about to go on when Rick’s image appeared on the view screen, but he recovered and asked the Barede officer if they had been detected.
‘Rick, are your sneak ships showing any threats
here?’
Rick looked apologetic as he replied.
‘No Joel, we are safe for the moment. Now the Barede fleet uses a manoeuvre that allows us to take supply ships with us by docking our sneak ships with them and running their engines beyond their rated capacity. So we can then take two fully provisioned tankers with us for later resupply.’
Joel quickly picked up on Rick’s statement with enthusiasm.
‘Of course and that is how the Traders launch their main ships from the surface of a planet. Now the supply ships are lighter than a Trader main ship, so can you run your engines at one hundred percent for an extended period?’
Rick replied with the specifics of his plan, and soon two unmanned supply ships were each docked with one of the smaller sneak ships. The remaining supply ships were quickly docked between the other remaining human ships and their cargoes were unloaded. After three days the now empty supply ships were instructed to return to their hiding places as the small human fleet left on the long journey home to Earth.
***
The new arrivals stood defiantly and self consciously together just inside the entrance and Freya slowly walked over to them. The new group, also unclothed, still gagged at the strong odour of the Fenshilla, whereas Freya’s group now merely wrinkled their noses in disgust. She noted that several of the new arrivals looked and sounded different, and a junior officer she knew slightly performed the introductions.
‘Commander Freya Paulson? I am Lieutenant John McLeod from the supply ship Bowman. We were taken about two days ago. There are a few survivors from both the Bowman and the Achilles, and these other people are Barede colonists that came to our aid. All up there are twenty two survivors from the supply ships. This is Commander Paul Burgess and this is Lieutenant Rebecca Dalton.’
Freya turned and promptly shook hands with both Paul and Rebecca as she replied.
‘John thanks for both the update and the introductions. Paul, Rebecca, it is a pity we could not meet under more pleasant circumstances and I saw the attack on the Trader ship earlier. We have thirty four survivors here and we have been captive for five days.’
Freya noted that Paul was a heavily built older officer that radiated both hardness and authority, but he already looked to have taken a solid beating at the hands of Fenshilla. She also could see that the tall brunette lieutenant had her left arm in a makeshift sling. Paul looked around the hold and asked his first questions before providing answers to what would have been her next questions.
‘Likewise Freya, now how many injured do you have here? Also has the Fenshilla commander offered any assistance or explanations for his attack? As for our injured we have some medical staff with us and I can see you have medical supplies.’
Freya supplied answers that were bleak about the Fenshilla and their motives, before she listed the number of injured. She then sought further information by providing an opinion of her own.
‘All our survivors were in suits trying to survive and expecting to fight Jerecab if we were boarded. The Fenshilla were a total surprise and we found them difficult to stop.’
Paul noted that the majority of Freya’s group were not marines before he made his sincere reply.
‘Well your group must have made a good defence even if you had few marines on your destroyers. We fought hard to prevent ourselves being captured despite both supply ships having marines involved in the rescue operation after they were originally disabled by the Jerecab. Commander Joel Everson escaped with his three destroyers, several supply ships and two of our sneak ships. Trader Captain Narindestat also escaped, but his ship was heavily damaged and four of the Fenshilla heavy cruisers later took up pursuit of her.’
Paul watched with Freya for a moment as the two groups of humans began to slowly introduce themselves and talk softly. Freya approached one of the other Barede women who also had long blonde hair, and handed her a length of plastic cord to tie back her hair. The Barede commander had ensured that he looked all the naked women in the eyes as a matter of setting an example to his own group of survivors. Paul knew that Freya was an attractive young woman commanding under very difficult circumstances. He noted the respect that Freya commanded with her own survivors, but he knew that it would be difficult to maintain this discipline under the savage treatment of the Fenshilla.
***
Omerio paced the deck of his cruiser and slowly rubbed his furry shoulders as he contemplated recent events. He knew subconsciously that the Barus all experienced an urge to rub or scratch their plain brown fur dating back to when they were conquered long ago by the Zronte. The Barus race had all once had patterns of gold stripes on their furry shoulders with the stripes denoting both class status and breeding. The commander made a forced effort to both stop his rubbing and to ignore the direction his mind was taking him with the association. He knew that it was futile to brood over their indentured status as vassals after their gene pool had been tampered with long ago by both the Zronte and the Fenshilla.
Tamerio could see his friend was deep in thought and he silently waited for several moments before he spoke two brief sentences.
‘Captain, the humans should have completed an ambush over the last day or so. If we search the next three star systems we may encounter damaged Jerecab ships.’
Omerio looked over the navigation display as he curtly replied.
‘We will only search the next two systems as they are the most likely return routes that the damaged ships will take. We will know in three hours when we make the next hyper jump if our plans are valid.’
The allotted time went by and the Barus squadron took the next hyper jump on the long journey towards Earth. Fortunately the star system was rather compact and consisted of a small red star and three smaller planets, so Omerio knew that their time here would be brief. He watched the navigation screen update with the latest sensor information before he gave his orders.
‘All ships are to try and run down the lone Jerecab frigate running away from us at speed. The four more distant frigates are obviously damaged and in lose formation.’
The Barus captain watched in a detached manner as his sixteen much larger cruisers slowly overhauled the first frigate and blew it into atoms with a single broadside from their powerful lasers. The four damaged frigates were also quickly overhauled and destroyed, before the Barus squadron moved on to the next hyper jump location.
After three more hours Omerio cancelled the next hyper jump as the squadron arrived at the location and he sat back still worried. The captain knew that the humans must have done damage to the Jerecab, but he could not help feeling that he had overlooked something. Omerio turned to Tamerio standing at his own console nearby and sought his opinion on his main concern.
‘Now we know that Admiral Baunrus brought with him nearly three hundred ships, but the question is now of how many other frigates do the Jerecab have elsewhere?’
The two friends looked at the generic map of the nearby star systems and quickly revised their plans. The Barus squadron then took up a patrol across the three likely star systems that Jerecab reinforcements would have to cross to reach Earth.
***
Eight hours had gone by after the last group of survivors had arrived, and the Fenshilla guards had earlier taken selected human males to one side and had then given them another solid beating. The beaten men, including Paul Burgess, were now being tended to by medical staff. Freya had noted at the time that only the larger Fenshilla males had been present during the beatings.
Freya now watched with suspicion as six of the smaller Fenshilla females, who appeared to be slaves, now walked into their prison. The alien females, all with minor injuries after being beaten themselves, stood quietly in a line several metres in front of the naked and seated humans. The accompanying Fenshilla males now positioned themselves at either end of their females and their stronger odour made the humans gag. She noted that the female slaves were young adults and that they did not respond to the jeers of the Fenshilla males.
/> The commander watched as the alien females took off their own assorted belts and the kilts around their waists. She also noted that senior Fenshilla officers, including their commandant was watching from the window above their prison. The Fenshilla overseer stepped up to the females and inspected them for several moments before he summoned five other male Fenshilla forward. He gave them a curt order before taking his kilt and belts off, and Freya watched as the rest of the selected males also dropped their kilts.
The overseer selected a female for each of the male Fenshilla after making his own choice first. The females promptly offered themselves to the males, and a muted buzz came from the assembled humans as the Fenshilla couples noisily mated.
After several minutes the Fenshilla overseer was sated and still naked he walked over to the humans. The women drew back from him by reflex as he struck at two men with his short whip and pulled them forward. Two other Fenshilla males came forward and each selected two more men that were pulled forward and struck a few times.
The Fenshilla then selected six women, including the injured Emma and one of the female Barede colonists. Freya watched in rage as the men were each assigned a woman, with Phil Peters trying to protect a distraught Emma. The human couples were then pushed roughly into each other’s arms.
The couples all looked at Freya, and Emma, the smallest and youngest woman selected, now began to whimper in both pain and fright. Freya stepped forward and gestured to the overseer in what she hoped was non threatening manner. The overseer sneered at her for several seconds as she slowly moved between Emma and Phil. Freya kept her back straight and her eyes on the rest of the crew as she gave her orders.